Oxygen levels in the world’s oceans have already been going down, according to previous studies made by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Researchers have warned that oceans around the world are bound to lose much of their oxygen concentrations by the year 2030 as a result of global warming.
This study was published in the Journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, where Matthew Long led the study along with his colleagues at the NCAR, examined the impact of the climatic changes on the amount of oxygen that’s usually found in the ocean.
Those studies noted that the effects aren’t too prominent so far, but new research from the NCAR might suggest that those lower levels may become a bigger problem in little more than a decade from now.
Why is oxygen running out?
Researchers are unsure of how much of this phenomenon is actually caused by global warming. However, they were able to determine a timeframe of when the effects of climate change could overwhelm the natural ability of oceans to handle such deoxygenation.
Matthew Long stated that the loss of oxygen in the oceans is one of the serious side effects of a warming atmosphere and a major threat to marine life.
“Since oxygen concentrations in the ocean naturally vary depending on variations in winds and temperature at the surface, it’s been challenging to attribute any deoxygenation to climate change. This new study tells us when we can expect the effect from climate change to overwhelm the natural variability,” said Long.
Deoxygenation: Oceanic hostility
This deoxygenation is a problematic phenomenon, where large areas of the world’s oceans are now way more aggressive to marine life than before. This can be seen in deep-sea fish, such as marlin and sailfish when they might prefer to stay near the surface of the ocean despite being known to traditionally hunt for prey at great depths.
Though this is yet another example of how the climatic change is affecting the world’s natural resources in a negative way, Long and his team suggested that more research may still be needed to determine additional climatic change impacts on the oceans.
Source: Online Library – Global Biogeochemical Cycles
This story actually appeared on my Google news page. WTF? So the oceans are going to run out of water which is 2 parts hydrogen, and one part oxygen. Or, perhaps the composition of water will be changed by all mighty AGW. Ha ha.
The ignorance of this comment ranks pretty much up there with, “Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.” — and for pretty much the same reasons scientifically.
Maybe it’s a good idea to understand an article prior to ridiculing it? Otherwise you open yourself to ridicule. Or education.
Any scientific article should be specific. I read the article, and actually thought it was a hoax which had gotten into my google news page. I have since googled NCAR, and found the original article. Even there they do not bother to specify “Unbound oxygen”, Or pure oxygen, or whatever the hell they’re talking about. Please explain to me how gaseous, breathable oxygen can exist at great depths of the ocean, and what’s down there that needs to breathe? By the way, I am not a AGW denier. I was mainly responding to the silly headline.
Fair enough, the title is indeed pretty bad. Breathable oxygen does of course exist at great depths, it’s just a question of “breathable by what” — fish aren’t converting water into oxygen chemically, they’re extracting dissolved oxygen from the water.
And of course, there are various creatures that need to breathe at great depths. Anglerfish, crabs, squid, etc.
Thanks for the info. I’ll start researching,
Interesting. Let’s see the results of more studies as we move forward. One study does not make it fact.
All rational people accept the reality of global warming but some don’t agree on the cause. We need to accept that as we overpopulate the planet we will have irreversible effects and need to minimize our impact as much as possible.
More chicken little sky is falling “science” designed to provide a secure paycheck to the climate change radicals. Make no mistake this is not science it is a religion.
Yeah, global warming is all a big conspiracy. Keep wearing your aluminum hat.
It is bad “science” hiding behind a predetermined agenda of wealth redistribution and a near religious belief that humans and human activity is the enemy of nature.
So tired of this nonsense from the left.
Yeah, global warming is all a big conspiracy theory. Keep wearing your aluminum hat.
So tired of this nonsense from the left.
So tired of this nonsense from the left.